Methods and apparatus for facilitating inter-cell interference coordination via over the air load indicator and relative narrowband transmit power

• US 8,868,091 B2
• Filed: 01/17/2011
• Issued: 10/21/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/18/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Damnjanovic, Aleksandar, Wei, Yongbin, Vajapeyam, Madhavan Srinivasan, Malladi, Durga Prasad
• Primary Examiner(s): Gelin, Jean
• Application Number:
  US13/007,955
• Publication Number:
  US 20120021753A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,373 Days
• Field of Search: 455/10, 455/13.3, 455/504, 455/63.1, 455/67.13, 455/67.14, 455/69, 455/522, 455/277.2, 455/132, 455/134, 455/562.1, 455/452.1, 455/453, 370/241, 370/252, 370/329, 370/330
• US Class Current: 455/452.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/10 Dynamic resource partitioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/541 using the level of interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/542 using measured or perceived quality

Abstract

Systems and methods for facilitating inter-cell interference coordination using resource partitioning are described. A UE may receive or determine information related to received interference and/or future scheduling. The information may be communicated to a serving base station, which may use the information to allocate uplink or downlink resources between cells. The uplink and/or downlink resource may be partitioned in subbands to mitigate interference from adjacent network nodes. The eNBs may communicate, such as directly, via a backhaul connection, and/or between UEs to configure interference coordination and signaling.

Claims

1. A method for interference mitigation in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:

determining interference information applicable to at least one of a serving cell and a neighbor cell, the interference information relating to at least one of an interference value corresponding to an amount of uplink interference experienced at a serving base station in the serving cell, or resources to be used in transmitting one or more downlink signals from the neighbor cell;

scheduling signal transmission within the serving cell based at least in part upon the interference information; and

communicating a resource partitioning request to one or more nodes in the neighboring cell.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

comparing the interference value to a target value; and

communicating, based upon the comparing, at least one load indicator (LI) signal to one or more devices in the neighboring cell.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least one load indicator signal is communicated to the neighboring cell using over the air (OTA) signaling.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a transmit power metric from a served UE, wherein the scheduling includes generating, based at least in part on the transmit power metric, an uplink scheduling assignment for the served UE.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a resource partitioning response.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the resource partitioning request relates to uplink subband partitioning between the serving cell and the neighboring cell.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the scheduling is based in part upon a partitioning of uplink communication resources between the serving cell and the neighbor cell.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the partitioning is predetermined and communicated to the serving cell and the neighbor cell.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the partitioning is dynamically determined based on information provided from a served user terminal in the serving cell.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the partitioning is negotiated between the serving cell and the neighbor cell.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the interference information relates to an expected amount of downlink interference experienced at a user terminal served in the serving cell.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the interference information relates to relative narrowband transmit power (RNTP) information associated with future transmissions in one or more subbands of the neighbor cell.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the RNTP information is sent from the neighboring cell using Over The Air (OTA) signaling.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving adjusted Channel State Information (CSI) from a served UE, wherein the scheduling includes generating, based at least in part on the Adjusted CSI, a downlink schedule for the serving base station.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the downlink schedule is based on a subband resource partition between the serving cell and the neighbor cell.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the scheduling is based in part upon a negotiated partitioning of downlink communication resources between the serving cell and the neighboring cell.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the partitioning is predetermined and communicated to the serving cell and the neighbor cell.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the partitioning is dynamically determined based on information provided from a served user terminal in the serving cell.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the partitioning is negotiated between the serving cell and the neighbor cell.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating a resource partitioning request to one or more nodes in the neighboring cell.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising receiving a resource partitioning response.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the resource partitioning request relates to a proposed downlink subband partitioning between the serving cell and the neighboring cell.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the interference information relates to power per antenna information associated with future transmissions in one or more subbands of the neighbor cell.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the interference information relates to phase offset per antenna information associated with future transmissions in one or more subbands of the neighbor cell.

25. A computer program product embodied in a non-transitory computer-readable medium including codes for causing a computer to:

determine interference information applicable to at least one of a serving cell and a neighbor cell, the interference information relating to at least one of an interference value corresponding to an amount of uplink interference experienced at a serving base station in the serving cell, or resources to be used in transmitting one or more downlink signals from the neighbor cell;

schedule signal transmission within the serving cell based at least in part upon the interference information; and

communicate a resource partitioning request to one or more nodes in the neighboring cell.

26. A communications device, comprising:

a memory; and

a processor coupled to said memory, and configured to;

determine interference information applicable to at least one of a serving cell and a neighbor cell, the interference information relating to at least one of an interference value corresponding to an amount of uplink interference experienced at a serving base station in the serving cell, or resources to be used in transmitting one or more downlink signals from the neighbor cell;

schedule signal transmission within the serving cell based at least in part upon the interference information; and

communicate a resource partitioning request to one or more nodes in the neighboring cell.

27. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the processor module is further configured to:

compare the interference value to a target value; and

communicate, based upon the comparison of the interference value to the target value, at least one load indicator (LI) signal to one or more devices in the neighboring cell.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the at least one load indicator signal is communicated to the neighboring cell using over the air (OTA) signaling.

29. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the processor module is further configured to receive a transmit power metric from a served UE, and wherein the processor module configured to schedule signal transmission within the serving cell is further configured to generate, based at least in part on the transmit power metric, an uplink scheduling assignment for the served UE.

30. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the processor module is further configured to communicate a resource partitioning request to one or more nodes in the neighboring cell.

31. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the processor module is further configure to receive a resource partitioning response.

32. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the resource partitioning request relates to uplink subband partitioning between the serving cell and the neighboring cell.

33. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the processor module configured to the schedule signal transmission within the serving cell is based in part upon a partitioning of uplink communication resources between the serving cell and the neighbor cell.

34. The apparatus of claim 33, wherein the partitioning is predetermined and communicated to the serving cell and the neighbor cell.

35. The apparatus of claim 33, wherein the partitioning is dynamically determined based on information provided from a served user terminal in the serving cell.

36. The apparatus of claim 33, wherein the partitioning is negotiated between the serving cell and the neighbor cell.

37. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the interference information relates to an expected amount of downlink interference experienced at a user terminal served in the serving cell.

38. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the interference information relates to relative narrowband transmit power (RNTP) information associated with future transmissions in one or more subbands of the neighbor cell.

39. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the RNTP information is sent from the neighboring cell using Over The Air (OTA) signaling.

40. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the processor module is further configured to receive adjusted Channel State Information (CSI) from a served UE, and wherein the processor module configured to the schedule signal transmission within the serving cell is further configured to generate, based at least in part on the Adjusted CSI, a downlink schedule for the serving base station.

41. The apparatus of claim 40, wherein the downlink schedule is based on a subband resource partition between the serving cell and the neighbor cell.

42. The apparatus of claim 41, wherein the processor module configured to schedule signal transmission within the serving cell is based in part upon a negotiated partitioning of downlink communication resources between the serving cell and the neighboring cell.

43. The apparatus of claim 41, wherein the partitioning is predetermined and communicated to the serving cell and the neighbor cell.

44. The apparatus of claim 41, wherein the partitioning is dynamically determined based on information provided from a served user terminal in the serving cell.

45. The apparatus of claim 41, wherein the partitioning is negotiated between the serving cell and the neighbor cell.

46. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the processor module is further configured to communicate a resource partitioning request to one or more nodes in the neighboring cell.

47. The apparatus of claim 46, wherein the processor module is further configured to receive a resource partitioning response.

48. The apparatus of claim 46, wherein the resource partitioning request relates to a proposed downlink subband partitioning between the serving cell and the neighboring cell.

49. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the interference information relates to power per antenna information associated with future transmissions in one or more subbands of the neighbor cell.

50. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the interference information relates to phase offset per antenna information associated with future transmissions in one or more subbands of the neighbor cell.

51. A communications device, comprising:

means for determining interference information applicable to at least one of a serving cell and a neighbor cell, the interference information relating to at least one of an interference value corresponding to an amount of uplink interference experienced at a serving base station in the serving cell, or resources to be used in transmitting one or more downlink signals from the neighbor cell; and

means for scheduling signal transmission within the serving cell based at least in part upon the interference information; and

means for communicating a resource partitioning request to one or more nodes in the neighboring cell.